Alex Rodriguez Suspended Through 2014 Season

Sad day for baseball and for Yankee fans. The timing is almost bizarre though — tonight will be A-Rod’s first game in the lineup all season — and word is he’s going to appeal the suspension and might play the remainder of the season.

12 other players around the league received 50-game suspensions; Rodriguez is the only player who is appealing. A-Rod fighting this until the bitter end makes a certain sick sense. If he is truly innocent and the victim of an elaborate conspiracy by MLB and/or the Yankees (fat chance), fighting the charge is the right thing to do. And if he’s guilty (sure looks like it) and accepted the ban, a suspension through the end of 2014 might effectively end his career. He’ll turn 40 during the 2015 season. Whatever games he can play during this appeals process may well be the only MLB games he’ll ever get to play again.

Notable: MLB has not made public the actual evidence against Rodriguez (nor any of the other suspended players), nor has Rodriguez failed a drug test.

Update: Front page of today’s New York Post.

★ Monday, 5 August 2013